“The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said, “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble.”
Isaiah 8:11-13 NLT
The first two verses from our reading today, in isolation, seem very modern in their intent and application. Our society today is plagued by people who have abandoned their own thoughts and desires in favour of adopting the thoughts and ideologies of others, just so that they can conform. We call it “groupthink”. This is a psychological phenomenon in which a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or suboptimal decisions because the desire for harmony and conformity overrides critical thinking. Members self-censor their doubts and avoid challenging the consensus to keep the peace. We see this across all walks of life, particularly in business and political environments, even amongst church leadership teams, and among groups drawn together by similar problems or concerns, such as those pursuing an eco agenda or those who feel marginalised in society because of their gender. Then we have political activists who organise protest marches, such as those in support of the Palestinian people. About the latter, some people supporting a recent march were asked if they understood the slogan on the placard they were carrying. The response was disappointingly vague, with an almost complete lack of understanding, it being more of a social occasion for them than a genuine protest. Well-intentioned they may have been, but if they had a critical understanding of the cause they were supporting, they might have stayed at home. One frightening feature of “groupthink” is when thinking is driven by people with no moral compass. Instead, the people involved wind each other up until something illegal is proposed, at which point they fail to confront the situation, and the members of the group end up in court.
There was a problem in Isaiah’s day: evil practices and the abandonment of God became the norm, to the detriment of society as a whole. Perhaps excuses such as “everyone does it” began to emerge, and God’s people failed to understand the consequences of their choices and actions.
Was “groupthink” a problem with Isaiah and his society in Judah? It seems so, because he received a warning from the Lord “not to think like everyone else does”. This was also a problem in the first century, to the extent that Paul had to write the following to the Roman church: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2). And that is the root of the situation. Human thinking is flawed, deeply impacted by sin, and a society built on it will not end well. There is only one “groupthink” allowed, and that is when God is involved. His people, pilgrims like us, need to change our thinking, even when it is at odds with the collective thought within our society. The Pilgrim Fathers fled this country in the 17th century because of religious persecution. They believed the Church of England was beyond saving and wanted to form their own independent congregations. Under English law, it was illegal to worship outside the state church, forcing them to hold secret meetings. So, refusing to comply, they ended up in America via the Netherlands. Was their “groupthink” wrong, or was the Church of England really beyond saving? Some would say today that they made the right decision.
The next verse in Isaiah 8 refers to conspiracies. Isaiah quotes the Lord telling him not to believe the conspiracy theories that circulated among the people. No specific conspiracies were mentioned, but human nature has always tried to explain difficult circumstances in overly simple terms. Sometimes those explanations have no basis in reality. Today, there is a real problem with conspiracies, because the internet and its global reach can quickly circulate a theory that is based on something, a comment, for example, taken out of context, and then used to build a whole “conspiracy theory” to the detriment of the people in general. Conspiracies usually involve assigning secret motives to those in power. They can also be suggestions that those who seem powerless are secretly in control of everything behind the scenes. When such conspiracies take root among a people, they can cause immense panic and damage. The priority of knowing what is true gets lost as people get caught up in fear. Some such theories are almost laughable in their content, such as the one that the Covid vaccination was being used to implant a computer chip in people so that the government could control them. Another conspiracy theory that has been around for a long time is the Flat Earth Society’s. In one media report, the sentence “The belief that the Earth is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory” appears (Huffington Post, October 29th 2012).
But we won’t dwell on the obvious. Isaiah wrote, “Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble”. This verse emerges as a breath of fresh air and as a remedy for many of society’s ills. Who is the One who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow? Who is the One who never changes? It is God we need to trust so that godless theories fall into disuse and out of memory. And more, we need to acknowledge Him with awe and trembling, because He is the source of all truth.
Father God. You are the Truth. You are the only One worth following in this life. Thank You for Your Word. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 